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Born in 1873, Miss Horner was appointed Pupil Teacher. on Probation at SS 119 Castlemaine in March 1890.
Perhaps pupil-teachers, 1902.
Between 1891 and 1892, she gained Third, Second and First Class Pupil Teacher status. In January 1893, she was transferred as Pupil Teacher to SS 1976 Bendigo; a year later, she returned to Castlemaine, still as Pupil Teacher. In 1897, she gained the Certificate of Competency. In 1901, she entered the newly established Melbourne Teachers College with one of the first infant teaching studentships awarded. Her assessments while at the College describe her as ‘a capable and active teacher showing great promise . . . has worked earnestly and industriously’. In 1907, she attained the Infant Teachers’ Certificate First Class. Between 1894 and her retirement in March 1938, Miss Horner moved through ten country schools and four Metropolitan schools as Head Teacher or First Female Assistant, as well as doing short stints at the Teachers College and at Suva Public School in Fiji (in 1902-3). Throughout her career, she was highly praised in assessments by District Inspectors.25
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Promotion, however, was not a matter of course, despite seniority or capability. The teachers’ discontent was expressed in March 1913, when the Victorian State Schools’ Teachers Union called for promotion by capacity rather than seniority, insisting that an Inspector’s mark of 90 out of 150 should ensure advancement.“ Fortunately for Princes Hill, Tate had been advocating similar views for some time, as recorded in the Argus: ‘the Heads of important schools should be men of approved teaching skills and of good general culture, and they should be full of energy, both physical and moral’. Such men, he continued, should be promoted while they were still with appetite and not at the end of their career.” Both of Princes Hill’s subsequent Head Teachers, Sebire and Mylrea, were such men.
Emily Miller, Infant Mistress at Pigdon Street, receiving the Lillian Horner Prize in 1958.
There was a more serious anomaly in the system. While women greatly outnumbered men in the service - in 1924, there were 4593 women teachers compared to 2348 men, and of the l757junior teachers only 392 were men” - men dominated promotion lists” and occupied the senior positions. Some women could push through, as Emily Miller, a woman of determined character, managed at various stages of her career; most could not, despite their ability and seniority. Christina Shaw is an example. She came to Princes Hill in 1915 as a Female Assistant Class V. In 1924, her application for promotion was rejected, despite thirty-seven years’ service, and despite her reputation as an innovative and dedicated teacher who often received twice the number of trainee teachers allotted to others.45 Low salaries frustrated the Department’s efforts to recruit talented teachers. The first schedule of salaries was established in July 1875. It was founded on the cumbersome, unfair system of ‘payment by results’, which had operated since 1862. While teachers’ base salaries were fixed amounts, up to half as much again could be paid as a bonus, depending on the results of twice-yearly examinations by the Inspectors. The examinations assessed the pupils’ academic performance, behaviour, neatness of work, cleanliness of appearance and attendance, and the school’s discipline, tone, physical condition, cleanliness and neatness. The Inspectors set the academic standards of each grade and pupil according to arbitrarily determined levels of competence. After each student had been examined by the inspector, the school was awarded a ‘school mark’, which was used to set payment: bonuses were paid in proportion to the mark awarded. Teachers had been protesting against payment by results since 1886, but without success. The system was rife with abuse by teachers and inspectors. Records could be fiddled; unfair tests were set. Worst of all, the system placed a premium on standardised, rote learning."" A number of amendments followed, but they did not protect teachers’ salaries from the vagaries of social, economic or political conditions. Parliamentary infighting in 1877-8 about the cost of education led to a reduction of salaries. The same occurred with ‘The Regrading of Schools Act’ (1895) which resulted in the reclassification of schools according to size. The depressions of the 1890s and 1930s and the drought of 1902 caused economic hardships for the state, and on each occasion teachers’ salaries were cut.“ Despite the numerous adjustments to salaries, women’s pay remained lower than male teachers’. In general, women’s base salaries were set at 80 per cent of the male rate. By the standards of the time, however, this was quite a narrow differential. In factories and offices, women workers generally earned less than half as much as men. In contemporary terms, women teachers were very well paid. Where a female factory worker would be lucky to earn £52 annually, even the lowest grade of female teaching assistants in 1888 had a base salary of £64 per annum, with the possibility of a bonus of anything up to 5332. At the top of the scale, female teachers could earn as much as £216 per annum plus bonuses. And, unlike most other women workers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, teachers were able to stay in steady employment, provided only that their health held up.48
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Although it was Departmental policy that only the Head Teacher could administer corporal punishment with the strap, many teachers used the privacy of the classrooms to vent their anger and frustration on hapless children with the strap or ruler. Even today, some ex-students can only speak of Miss Hindley and Miss Mead with bitterness. Other teachers became the subject of Departmental investigations. Fortunately, they were atypical at Princes Hill, but they did occur. In 1900, Mrs Dunlop accused Miss Hindley of striking her son James."7 In 1910, Mr Oxlade complained that Mr McShane had unfairly and severely punished his daughter by detaining her during lunch recess and after school for a month, by humiliating her before the class, and by assigning her an inordinate number of lines to write daily for that month."8 In 1918, Mr Wellman, the Sloyd (woodwork) master, allegedly used unbecoming language towards the boys in his class.59 In 1922, Mr Disher accused Mr von Putt of ‘bashing his son’s head on the blackboard’.60 In 1946, Mr Kennedy supposedly took to young John Sturrock with a stick."’ Each accusation was investigated by an Inspector. Reports were demanded from the teacher in question and the Head Teacher, and witnesses were questioned. If the charges were sustained although few were the teacher was suitably censured.
Voices of discontent
On 6 May 1969, secondary teachers in Victoria went on strike. 2 More strikes followed. After a century of dissatisfaction with the state education system, teachers had begun to voice their discontent publicly. The primary issue that precipitated the action of May 1969 was the low quality of training for secondary teachers. Unattractive salaries, slow promotion, increasing workloads, large class sizes, near primitive work conditions and assessment procedures, dissatisfaction with the Teachers’ Tribunal, poor image and status in the community were additional factors.63
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While the School Council’s job prescription for teachers seems clear, the devolution of authority has created two masters for staff; at times, this has caused ambiguities and friction. Olive Hamilton confronted this in 1983-5 when she felt obliged to honour requests from the Education Department to participate in Departmental projects. Disagreement between the Princes Hill Primary School Councils and the school’s principals in the mid to late 1970s and in 1983 also upset that school’s equilibrium. According to Ron Millet, who went there as Head Master in 1977, and a teacher employed there at the time, the school had a high casualty rate of teachers as a result of the tension and pressure from the ‘activist’ School Council and parents. Those wounds healed, as did those of 1983. John Heath, who in 1984 was sent by the Ministry as special relieving principal to conciliate and re-establish peace, praises the staff. According to Heath, balance was regained in the school because teachers wanted to ‘put the past behind them’. The ‘fight’ was fought and largely won in the 1970s. Though politicians decried militancy, it was necessary as a natural evolution of teaching. And it mirrored society’s radicalism. The 1980s, however, have brought a noticeable return to conservatism. Again, the trend is paralleling changes in society at large. The 1970s and 1980s devolution of education is now slowing down and drawing back, as educators, the community and the Ministry of Education call for more accountability. The collaboration and consensus that marked relations with the Department even two years ago have today been replaced with ‘consultation’ and ‘advice taking’.
The Memory of Teachers
Although archives do not retain complete lists of Princes Hill School teachers, a gallery of names confronts us. Some 88 only stayed a short while; others became the backbone of the school. To name everyone would be fitting, but impossible. Only a minute number, those most frequently referred to by students can be mentioned here. Gaps are inevitable.
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Arthur ‘Alfie’ Bock was the boys’ grade 7 teacher during the 1920s and 1930s. A short man who wore a stiff butterfly 9 collar, he supervised the boys’ sports teams and coached the footballers and runners to many successes.” The austere, sarcastic, perfectionist Victor von Putt taught grade 5 and doubled as the music teacher. His nasty streak was the 7 subject of a rhyme,
‘Putty on the window,
Putty on the floor,
Putty went to hit me,
and we pushed him out the door’.93
Like ‘Sally’ Shaw, Miss Body, who had the bell-tower room, also was at the school for what seemed an ‘eternity’. Her grade 6 boys loved the ‘most popular boy’ prize she presented annually.94
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The high school had its contingent of characters too. Tony Knight not only broke hearts but invigorated the school’s sporting reputation, and the fibre of the school in general. His interests sparked off student activities in many fields, from the jazz club to the hiking enthusiasts. ‘O’ John Ireland’s sensitivity and accessibility to whatever problems students had, whether academic or personal, endeared him to many. The hiking expeditions he organised with Tony Knight are fondly remembered, as are the ‘sex education’ talks he delivered. 102 Peter Stapelton seemed fragile, but his resolve and humour were strong. Emile Hamer’s Dutch stubbornness exasperated his fellow teachers, but his love of scholarship and breadth of learning has inspired many students. Nancy Weiner and Billy Murdoch, an ex-student of Princes Hill High School, rejuvenated the school’s theatrical spirit. Murdoch’s revues, ‘Princes Hill is Burning Down’ and ‘Have a ’Wunderbar’’, helped students laugh through the bad days. John Thurgood, with his deep caring for children, was killed in an automobile accident on his way back to Melbourne from his beloved Mirimbah.
